Are you sure?
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Are we really grateful?
The concept of coveting is something we’ve probably all experienced. We learn about it—in theory—in Sunday School as children. Experiencing it starts when we wonder why other kids have nicer clothes or go on fancy vacations.
It wasn’t until after college that I really started to experience jealousy and covetousness. I’d compare my salary to what I thought my friends were making, compare the apartments we lived in and the cars we drove.
But during this past year, all of these feelings suddenly became heightened. One of my best friends and my roommate announced that thanks to a fortunate turn of events in her finances, she would be buying her own home and moving out within a couple of months.
The jealousy and unhappiness I felt over this news was endless and tiring. What’s more, in the face of my financial coveting, I was paralyzed with worry about where I’d live, and worse, how I would afford to live without a roommate. There just didn’t seem to be a way out.
One day while I was driving home from work, in a truly momentous attempt to figure out how I was supposed to see God and Christian Science expressed in my daily life, a familiar quote from Mary Baker Eddy came to mind: “Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 3 ).
This was followed immediately by the very clear questions: “Have I ever given you a reason to doubt that I would provide for you? Have you ever been in a circumstance where your needs were not met? Haven’t I led you through life and shown you ceaseless good?” Well, I felt as if I should head home with my tail between my legs.
I knew unequivocally that God had always given me just what I needed. And suddenly, I was overcome with a sense of gratitude like I’d never experienced before. I began to mentally list everything in my life for which I was grateful. From that day on, that shift in attitude has stayed with me. Whenever I’m even slightly tempted to compare or covet, I stop for a moment and think of all that I have to be grateful for. Over time, those moments of doubt and worry have come to be all but nonexistent.
Within a couple of months, my new housing situation completely unfolded, harmoniously and effortlessly. Funding from a previously unknown source practically fell into my lap, a kind and truly exceptional realtor was presented to me without my even looking, and after looking at only five or six homes, I found and purchased my first home—something that had seemed financially incomprehensible just a few short months prior.
Through every step of the home buying process, I was guided as to which decisions to make, and my needs were met every step of the way. And what is normally (so I’m told) a very stressful and worrisome process was completely peaceful for me.
The home was in perfect condition, and was just exactly what I needed. In addition to the blessings I found in my living situation, other financial worries began to dissolve. It wasn’t that I suddenly had more money, it’s that my attitude and understanding of supply had changed. Instead of coveting and wanting more and more as a means to feeding my supply, my gratitude allowed me the confidence to know that whatever I had was exactly the supply I needed.
—Laura Forbes, Nashua, New Hampshire, US